


Names Dripping with Blood

by tigriswolf



Series: comment_fic drabbles [293]
Category: Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms, Original Work
Genre: Dark, Death, F/M, Fairy Tale Elements, Gen, Magic, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-16
Updated: 2016-03-16
Packaged: 2018-05-27 04:40:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6270007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigriswolf/pseuds/tigriswolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once, there was a princess<br/>beloved<br/>by all who knew her.</p><p>Her name?<br/>We do not speak it now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Names Dripping with Blood

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Names Dripping with Blood  
> Written: March 15, 2015  
> Prompt: any, any, _they used to shout my name, now they whisper it._

Once, there was a princess  
beloved  
by all who knew her.

Her name?  
We do not speak it now. 

But I can tell you  
of the court she commanded,  
of the besotted knights  
and the charming princes  
battling for her the honor  
of kissing her hand,  
for scraps of her attention,  
for a kiss and a dance. 

I can tell you  
of the far-flung kingdoms  
and the nobles of the land  
who offered fortunes and favors  
simply for the chance  
of marrying the most beautiful princess  
the world had ever seen. 

Was she?  
Debatable, but not where anyone can hear. 

Once, there was a princess.  
No, she was not cursed. 

She was the curse. 

She wed on a bright spring day  
to the second son of the king’s greatest ally.  
Their union was a blessing for both kingdoms –  
or so it seemed, at first. 

His name?  
Long forgotten.  
It was never important, nor he,  
that sad, sorry prince. 

The beloved princess’s father died  
the autumn after the wedding.  
She was crowned queen in mourning black.  
Her husband died the following spring,  
while she grew plump with his child. 

Oh, how the kingdom mourned them both!  
And none cried so beautifully as the beloved queen. 

She birthed a son in the summer.  
His name…  
Well, it is one you know. 

Tell me, do you know of the witch  
who lives far beyond the mountains,  
past that haunted forest,  
down near the frozen shore?  
Yes?  
And do you know of the warlord  
whose reach stretches from ocean to ocean,  
who gobbles up realms and spits out the bones? 

Of course you do. 

The beloved princess who  
became the beloved queen  
was not cursed, no.  
She _was_ the curse, you see.  
Who cast it?  
No one knows.  
Why? 

Lips as red as the blood shed  
when a prince was sacrificed  
by the light of the moon.  
Hair as black as the moonless night  
a queen recited words in a language  
long lost to time.  
Skin as white as the bones that  
litter battlefields across  
a continent. 

We are cursed, you see. 

Her name?  
We do not say it,  
though once it rang out in cheers,  
echoing off the stone streets.  
His name?  
There are some who whisper it.  
You would know it if you heard. 

Mine?  
Oh, that is unimportant, I promise you.  
You shouldn’t wonder such things, you know.  
It matters not how I remember.  
Best get on home, now.  
Don’t stray from the path. 

We are cursed, you see.  
Our beloved princess became  
the terrible witch  
who rules the world from the seashore.  
Her beloved son became  
the horrible warlord  
who commands the world from a throne of bones.

It was centuries ago, now.  
Don’t ask me how I remember.  
I promise, you don’t want to know.


End file.
